Author: Oxford Psychology Team

Some years ago, the department I was in at the time analysed the A Level and GCSE results of everyone who took Psychology. They found that the best predictor of performance on the A Level was Additional Science or the average grade that a student achieved in Triple Science. If students had a B or […]

As the summer holidays rapidly become a distant memory and we find ourselves dealing with all that another busy school year brings, this September will also see many of you starting to teach a new GCSE Psychology specification. There are potentially many questions that you may have when faced with the newness and the unknown […]

I know many people feel the new AQA specification is overloaded – so I decided to conduct a rough comparison of the old and new specifications by comparing the number of spreads in the old and new Complete Companions . Each spread roughly equals one essay topic. What I found is in the table below. The option topics […]

By now you are probably acutely aware of the fact that GCSE Psychology is changing and I’m sure many of you are busy planning and preparing for teaching the new specifications when your students return in September. So while you are working hard on writing your new schemes of work, planning lessons and developing resources, […]

Late July and August, you’ll often find me settled in a deck chair, enjoying the sunshine and summer breeze on my skin, cool drink in one hand, book in the other. Bliss! The book will almost certainly be a psychology title, and every so often it leads me to reflect upon and ponder life a […]

Milgram’s obedience studies are amongst the most famous in all of psychology and taught to all psychology students. But if you think you know all about them, chances are that a new film from shortcuts tv, Beyond Milgram, will get you thinking again. When Professors Alex Haslam and Steve Reicher asked samples of psychology students […]

Every September, a special event takes place at Harvard University. Scientists gather in the Sanders Theatre for the Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony. If you haven’t come across this before then check it out. The Ig Nobels are like real Nobel prizes except that they are given to science that makes you laugh and then makes you think. At […]

Psychology is an amazing subject to teach. Whether you are teaching GCSE or supervising a PhD, we are lucky enough to spend our days understanding how people think, feel and behave. Psychology is a popular subject with students, and it is easy to engage them in understanding how mental health conditions are treated, or how […]

As Psychology Subject Officer for WJEC Eduqas, an important part of my role is to support the teachers who are teaching my specifications. I do this in a variety of ways: offering face-to-face CPD; answering emails and phone calls; developing resources for the classroom etc. However, a British Psychological Society (BPS) survey of psychology teachers, […]

If you’re looking for the answers to the ‘Can you?’ questions in The Complete Companions for AQA, you can now find these on our website . We will update the link printed on p4 of The Year 1 and AS Complete Companion next time it is reprinted. We apologise for any confusion.